Valve-gear.



R. H. RICE.

VALVE GEAR- APPLICATION FILED JUNE 29, 19w.

1,297,249u Patented Mar. 11, 1919.

Irv/enter; Richard H. Rice,

I rrE s AT HIE.

RICHARD H. RICE, 0F SWAMPSCOT'I, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO GENERALELECTRIC COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

VALVE-GEAR.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARD H. RICE, a citizen of the United States,residing at Swampscott, county of Essex, in the State of Massachusetts,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Valve-Gears, ofwhich the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to valve gears'such as areutilized forexample in controlling and regulating the admission of motive fluid toan elastic fluid turbine, and has for its object to provide an improvedstructure in an apparatus of this character.

For a consideration of what I believe to be novel and my invention,attention is directed to the accompanying specification and the claimsappended thereto. 1

In the accompanying drawing which illustrates one embodiment of theinvention, Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view through the steam chestof an elastic fluid turbine showing the valve mechanism therein partlyin section and partly in elevation and with certain parts broken away;Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the valve mechanism within the steam chest,certain parts being shown in section, Figs. 3 to 9 are detail views ofvarious parts;vFig. 10 shows a portion of a turbine illustrating anarrangement wherein the valve mechanism is actuated by an automaticspeed governor and Fig. 11 is a perspective view of one of the valves.

Referring to the drawing, 12 indicates an elastic fluid turbine and 13 afluid chest to which elastic fluid is admitted through a conduit 14 andfrom which it flows to the turbine through a valve mechanism,the construction and arrangement of which forms the subject matter of thisinvention. The fluid chest has a to plate 15 held in place by bolts 16and in t is top plate is an opening 17 closed by the cover 18. In thehead of the turbine of which" the valve chest 13 forms a part are aseries of'passages 19 which convey elastic fluid from the chest to theadmission nozzles of the turbine, the passages leading to nozzles atdifferent points around the periphery of the machine, as is wellunderstood. The elastic fluid flows from the chest 13 to the passages 19through openings 20 which are arranged in two rows a'ndare staggeredrelative to each other so that close regulation can be obtained, as isexplained more fully hereinafter. In each of the openings 20 is fixedSpecification of Letters Patent. Patented B131. 11, 1919.

Application filed June 29, 1917. Serial No. 177,840.

a sleeve 21 having a flanged head 22, on the top surface of which is avalve seat 23, and engaging the valve seat 23 is a disk valve 24.Carried by each head 22 is a guide means comprising arms 25, to the freeends of which are connected arcuate strips 26, and engaging with saidguide means is a pair of spaced parallel uprights 27 carried by the diskvalve 20. The uprights 27 have rounded ridges 28 which engage said guidemeans. The valves are lifted by means of a lever comprising two parallelarms 29 and 30 which extend between the uprights 27 of each row ofvalves and engage pins 31 carried by the uprights, the arms beingpreferably provided with slots 32 adapted to receive the pins. Thearrangement is such that the lever arms 29 and 30 engage the pins 31 oneafter another to successively hit the valves 24 from their seats, and tothisend the pins 31 may be arranged at different distances above thelever arms. lever arms 29 and 30 are fastened together at theirright-hand ends by a bolt 33, being held in spaced relation to eachother by a The sleeve 34 which surrounds the bolt and against the endsof which they are clamped by nuts 35. The ends of bolt 33 project beyondthe nuts 35 and are provided with V-shaped grooves 36 (Fig. 9) whichengage knife edges 37 on members 37 carried by a support 38 fixed to thecover plate 15 by bolts 3.9. The support 38 comprises a U-shaped frameas shown in Fig. 3, and the knife edge members 37 a are detachablyconnected to the arms of this frame by means of bolts 40 as shownparticularly in Fig. 9. By this arrangement the knife edges can be veryreadily renewed when found necessary. This forms an anti-frictionpivotal bearing for the one end of the lever comprising arms 29 and 3O.The other ends of lever arms 29 and 30 are carried by abolt 41, beingspaced apart thereon by a sleeve 42 against the ends of which they areheld by the nuts 43. The sleeve 42 has a V shaped groove 44 in it (Fig.8) with which engages the knife edge 45 on a member 46 in the lowersurface of which'is a groove 47 engaged by a second knife edge 48 on amember 48 carried by a frame 49. The knife edge member 48 is detachablyconnected to the'frame 49 by a bolt 50 so that it may be readily removedfor repair or renewal. The. frame 49 has a at 51, with a guide 52carried by the cover 18. Suitably connected with the frame 4-9 is a rod53 which passes through a stuffing box 54 and a cover plate 18. By meansor" this rod the frame 49 can he slid vertically on the guide 52 to liftthe one end of the lever arms 29 and 30, the other ends pivoting on theanti-friction bearing comprising grooves 36 and knife edges 37. TheobjeEt of the intermediate piece i8 is to permit the lever arms 29 and30 to swing in the arc of a circle upon a vertical movement of the framee9. The action which takes place is clearly illustrated in Fig. 8 wherethe line 0: indicates the vertical line upon which the frame as moves,and the line 3 the curved line upon which the ends of lever arms 29 and30 move.

The rod 53 may be operated by hand or in any other suitable manner. entinstance it is shown as being connected with a well known type of valveactuating mechanism comprising a fluid actuated motor 55 suitablyconnected through lever 56, rod 57 and three arm lever 58 to a speedgovernor 59. The operation of such a valve ac tuating mechanism is wellknown and needs no further description.

As best shown in Fig. 2 the valves are arranged in two rows, the valvesin one row being staggered relative to those in the other row. Thisgives a close compact arrangement and one making the most advantageoususe of the space available. lVhen the lever arms 29 and 30 are raisedthe valves are opened in the order a, Z), 0, (Z, c, f, g, 71, 2', andwhen the lever arms are lowcred they are closed in the reverse order.The valves a, Z and c and 2' are larger than the remaining valves andare arranged to admit elastic fluid to a larger number of nozzles. W henthe turbine is operating at around the normal load, the valves a, b and0 are open and the regulating takes place on valves (Z, c, f, g, and it,depending on the load. As these valves are small a close regulation canbe'obtained. Such a close regulation' is not necessary at light loads asthe turbine seldom operates for any length of time at light loads. Thefirst valves to open are accordingly made larger as it effects a savingin the number of valves, and the cost of manufacture. The valve 2" is anoverload valve which only comes into play in case a heavy overload onthe machine. it will be understood, of course, that arrangement of thevalves to size n for diii erent machines desigi ent conditions ofoperation, one idea in tained being to h. the smaller valves the pointswhere close regulation is dcsii in M19 above descrioeo will be oted thatwitnin & 4 all the valve ti In the pres the. operating rod 53. Thismeans that only a single stufiing' box is required, a matter ofconsiderable importance, particularly where elastic fluid at a highpressure is being dealt with. The use of anti-friction knife edgebearings torthe actuating lever for the valves is of advantage in thatthey are simple to construct and require no lubrication, the latterbeing of importance on account of the difiiculty in lubricating movingparts which are subjected to ,the destructive action of the live elasticfluid which may be of high temperature.

In operation each valve is lifted separately without interference withthe adjacent valves. ln case a valve should stick open the lever arms 29and 30 in moving downward will strike it on the top, thereby looseningit and starting it toward closed position. The valve will then seat dueto gravity and the elastic fluid pressure.

in accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, l havedescribed the principle of operation of my invention, together with theapparatus'which i now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof;but I desire to have it understood that the apparatus shown is onlyillustrative, and that the invention can be carried out by other means.

W hat 1 claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of theUnited States is:

1. in a turbine having a rotor with buckets thereon, the combination ofan elastic fluid chest, passages leading from the chest to the turbinebuckets, a series of valves located in the chest for said passages, alever also located in the chest for successively engaging and liftingsaid valves, a frictionless pivot for one end 01"- said lever, a rodextendingthrough a wall of the chest for lifting the lever, and africtionless pivot connecting said rod to the other end of said lever.

2. In a turbine, thecombination of an elastic fluid chest, rows ofvalves in the chest which control the flow of fluid therefrom to theturbine, a lever comprising par allel arms, one for each row of valves,for successively iiting said valves, an antifriction pivot 1 i: saidlever, an operating rod extent rougii a wall of the chest, and

a connec: .1 be" n it and the lever comon. bearing.

he combination or" an we of valves in the e flow of fluid thererbine, alover comprising parrc ea row valves, for

valves,said arms exo s or the valves and *es to force them tions on thevalves hich said arms enand an operating rod for the lever which extendsthrough a ward-theirseats, projections on the valves wall of the casing.located above the arms which said arms en- 4. In a turbine, thecombination of an gage for lifting the valves, an operating rod elasticfluid chest, rows of valves in the chest for the lever which extendsthrough a wall 5 which control the flow of fluid therefrom to of thecasing, and guides for directing the 15 the turbine, a lever comprisingparallel movements of the valves. arms, one for each row of valves, forsucces- In witness whereof I have hereunto set sively lifting saidvalves, said arms extendmy hand this 26th day of. June, 1917. ing acrossthe tops of the valves and adapt- 10 ed to engage the valves to forcethem to- RICHARD H. RICE.

